Grains of Sand

Pixabay Our goal: Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. They go on from strength to strength till each appears before God in Zion. —Psalm 84:5-7 Pilgrims, on their journey to the capitol city of the Kingdom of God, are not promised a trouble-free trip. The believers to whom Peter wrote his first letter were experiencing persecution because they were followers of Jesus. They were scattered throughout the world of their day with little hope of finding peace and safety anywhere since Rome had her tentacles in every part of that world. Several years ago I read  We've Lost. What Now? ,  a book based on lessons from Daniel. In it, author Wayne Baxter describes how Daniel's experience relates to today's church as it hovers on the edges of society, in a world over which, as Francis Schaeffer said in...

Pixabay He was a novelty, a curiosity. People were tempted to keep their distance, just as they would today if they saw a scruffy man carrying a sign announcing the end of the world. At the same time, the little “bump” that insists on knowing what is going on would drive them to linger near enough to hear what he had to say. He was John the Baptist, the desert prophet and way-paver for Christ, the Messiah. His message? “ Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near ” (Matthew 3:2). And if, and when, any of his listeners were willing to repent, “ Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River ” (3:6). Public confession of sins is something we seldom see today, but it was the prerequisite for baptism—and still should be. But there was also a post-requisite that was to follow baptism. When the religious leaders came to John, he turned on them with this accusation: “ You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repe...

Google Images It is one of the classic verses of Scripture. John 14:6 is often quoted in pre-evangelism, as a proof text that Christ is the only means of salvation—and so it should be. But there is much more to it than even that. On the night he was betrayed, as Jesus and His disciples finished their last meal together, the disciples were uneasy, Jesus kept talking about leaving. That was not what they wanted to hear. He promised that He was going ahead of them to prepare “a place” for them. Thomas was afraid of missing the turnoff so he asked: “ Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way? ” (14:5). Then came the classic reply: “ Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’ ” (14:6) This “place” the Lord was preparing was heaven. He had already told them that they knew the way to get there (14:4). That was the heart of the message Jesus had been preaching over the three and a half years He had been ...